The Seasons

With the rapidly approaching vernal equinox, I thought I'd get into the spirit of the season and talk about seasons.

But is spring actually approaching?

What we call spring should not be defined as such. Think for a moment of the Earth as it travels around the Sun. Spring and fall each begin with an equinox, when the Sun is directly over a point of the Equator. Summer and winter each begin with a solstice, when the Sun is furthest from the Equator.

But these definitions are stupid. We say that the three months after each of these events is a season.

It makes far more sense to define the seasons as 1.5 months on either side of the celestial event. The vernal equinox should occur IN THE MIDDLE of spring, not at the beginning!

Think I'm crazy? Consider summer and winter. These are supposed to be the times of most extreme weather, hot and cold. However, the days theoretically hottest and coldest (with all other variables removed) would be the solstices and the days surrounding them. Why do we call the days leading up to the summer solstice spring, when they're part of those hottest days?

So maybe for you, spring begins tomorrow afternoon. But for me, it began over a month ago.